Cybersecurity examines the methods, techniques and tools for securing computer systems that are accessible through a network, typically the Internet, which is often known as cyberspace.
Most networked computing systems can be considered socio-technical systems and the successful defence against cyber-attacks requires consideration of a broad range of human and technical factors, from the general security awareness among agents in an organisation to the proper enforcement of security policies through cryptography and access control mechanisms.
Specialist Programme in Cybersecurity at DTU
The specialist programme in Cybersecurity aims to equip students with the proper knowledge and skills to protect an organisation's assets (both intellectual- and physical property) through system security analysis; application of prevention, detection and ethical response techniques and to ensure business continuity by installing and operating suitable recovery mechanisms.
In particular, students should be able to:
Conduct a security analysis of an organisation, which will include risk analysis, definition of threat- and attacker models, implementation of applicable counter-measures.
Implement continuous monitoring to enable real-time detection and collection of security data that may be used in forensic security analysis.
Participate in forensic analysis of cyber incidents and assist in recovery of operations.
Participate in the formulation, update and communication of organisational cybersecurity strategies and security policies.
The specialist programme in Cybersecurity is defined in the context of the Computer Security study line on the M.Sc. in Computer Systems & Engineering program. It meets all the requirements of the Computer Security study line and follows all the rules defined for that study line, but students who pass the set of courses that have been identified in the specialist programme in Cybersecurity may request a separate certificate to show that they have obtained these specific competences as part of their studies.
Students requesting the Specialist Programme in Cybersecurity Certificate, should meet the general requirements of the Computer Security study line and have followed the courses identified below.
The specialist programme in cybersecurity requires the mandatory course and at least one of the specific technological specialisation courses to be selected.
The remaining technological specialisation courses can be freely selected among the specific technological specialisation courses for the specialilst programme in cybersecurity and all the technological specialisation courses defined in the study handbook for the M.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering. It is recommended that these courses are selected in a way that allows an alternative study line to be selected later on, i.e. they should not consist exclusively of introductory courses.
Elective Courses
The elective courses allow students who follow the specialist programme in cybersecurity to specialize beyond the technological specialisation courses identified for the Computer Security study line. In order to obtain the specialilst programme in cybersecurity certificate, most of the elective courses must be selected among a small set of mandatory "elective" courses. Moreover, some elective courses from the study handbook are recommended here because they are particularly relevant for the specilalist programme in cybersecurity.
Mandatory Courses
Special course on Practical Network Security (June, 5 ECTS) Special course on Computer Forensics (January, 5 ECTS) Special course on Computer Emergency Response (Spring, 5 ECTS)
Remaining elective courses can be chosen freely among the technological specialisation courses and elective courses defined for the Computer Security study line.
M.Sc. Thesis
In order to obtain the specialist programme in cybersecurity certificate, the M.Sc. thesis should address a problem in IT security.
Special Courses for the Specialist Programme in Cybersecurity
As part of the work on the new specialist programme in cybersecurity, the following topics have been identified as important for cybersecurity professionals; these competences are not covered sufficiently by existing courses in security. In order to address the need for such competences, DTU Compute has defined the following special courses in collaboration with industrial partners.
Computer Forensics
This 5 ECTS course examines means to collect and analyse security incident data from computers and networks, so that they can be used to analyse the incident and so that they may be used as evidence in a possible court case. Among the topics addressed in this course are security intelligence, log analysis and big data techniques applied to the security forensics domain.
Computer Emergency Response
This 5 ECTS course covers a variety of topics that are commonly known as incident response. In particular, the course addresses security planning and preparation, security awareness, organisational security exercises and management of ongoing security incidents.
Practical Network Security
This 5 ECTS course focuses on technological issues in IT- and network security, such as authentication systems, problems arising from spoofing, the use of common components, such as Active Directory services or Identity Management systems, in the security architecture and protection mechanisms against typical attack vectors. The course builds on the mandatory technological specialisation course 02233 Network Security, but provides more hands-on experience with current security technology.
